re:mote voices

Title: Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Ian McDiarmid, Samuel L. Jackson, Jimmy Smits, Frank Oz, Anthony Daniels, Christopher Lee
Director: George Lucas

George Lucas seems to be uninterested in the response to his Star Wars prequels from the people that grew up with his original films. To a degree, I respect that, as a creator he has to feel like he is being true to his vision and is pushing the boundaries of his art. Which would be great if that is actually what he was doing. Instead much of what actually worked in his original trilogy is gone from these films. While Episodes I to III certainly are state of the art in terms of special effects, it takes much more than special effects to make a film work. Sure there are plenty of other films out there which are weaker than they should be because they relied too heavily on digital effects but they don’t have the “pedigree” of Lucas.

Star Wars Episode III - The Revenge Of The Sith is in theory the one that we have all been waiting for. The film that links the new three films to Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope, and the series of films that we all grew up with. To do this The Revenge Of The Sith concentrates on the move towards the dark side that Anakin Skywalker started in Attack Of The Clones. Plagued by dreams of the death of his beloved Padmé, who at the start of the film announces that she is pregnant, he feels like he must find a way to save her life.

Of course the war that started in the first film is still ongoing, with Chancellor Palpatine becoming increasingly powerful. As we all know Palpatine is actually a Sith lord, destined to become the Emperor, and the war is all a deception designed to weaken the Jedi and strengthen his position. As a Sith he sets about seducing Anakin to the dark side, persuading him that the Jedi are not to be trusted and that only by becoming a Sith lord can he hope to save his wife an unborn children. Thus the doom of the Jedi is set in motion, and the rise of Darth Vader is assured.

Watching The Phantom Menace originally one was struck by the excesses of the CGI that was used. Though looking back at it after Episodes II and III it doesn’t seem to be as bad. With each film the material has become busier, so that it seems like every scene has surplus material added in postproduction. Though at least by adding stuff that the cast don’t know about at the time, you get less of the GSS (Green Screen Stare - a glassy stare and unconvinced facial expression encountered with excessive use of computer graphics) that was evident in Phantom. With that it increasingly seems that everything is over designed - so that the space ships and uniforms that worked well enough in the original films have become more convoluted than necessary. Which is particularly evident when Darth Vader finally dons the notorious armour that made him such a memorable figure in Episodes IV-VI, and looks entirely out of place.

Plot wise Revenge Of The Sith is probably the sloppiest of the new trilogy. There is just too much going on, so that we are switching from scene to scene every couple of minutes. So that there is no real feeling that we are actually developing a solid plot or that we are getting enough of a feel for any of the characters that we care whether they live or die. This leads to absurdities like the cameo of Chewbacca and the Wookie army that adds absolutely nothing to the film, and doesn’t get enough screen time to even be considered worthwhile as titillation.

Hayden Christiansen is certainly less whiny and irritating than he was in Attack Of The Clones, where he came across as being a pathetic little child, rather than someone prophesised to be the most powerful Jedi ever. Here he has taken more of the darkness on, which allows him to behave more sinister and restrained. Though even then you don’t really care. Natalie Portman reprises her role for the third film in a row, but whereas she may have demonstrated some backbone and sass that was almost worthy of her daughter-to-be Leia, she is reduced to snifflingness here. Ewan McGregor also returns as Obi-Wan Kenobi, though he takes his imitation of Alec Guinness to another level, so that he seems to be playing Guinness more than he does Kenobi. As such the lines that might have worked in the original three films are too busy being phrased just so to convey the actual point. In fact having just re-watched The Phantom Menace, I would tend to see that Liam Neeson was closer to the part of Kenobi with his role as Kenobi’s teacher.

Apart from those performances it is really Ian McDiarmid as Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Siddious that steals the film. At least for the first part of the film, he maintains the conniving and devious role, advancing the cause of the Sith and his eventual rise to Emperor. Though ironically the turning point in the film is where he is made to take his character too far, so while things (as far as this film are concerned) really get moving, he is no longer as good as he was. In terms of human performances Samuel L. Jackson, who is often just taking the money for showing up these days, actually gives it is all for when he is on screen. From there it is unfortunate that R2D2 seems to have all the best lines in the first 20 minutes and Yoda is brilliant again, stealing the film every time he is on screen just as he did in Attack Of The Clones.

While I was perhaps offended by how bad Attack Of The Clones was, and looking back I start to feel a certain affection for The Phantom Menace, I have to confess that The Revenge Of The Sith for the most part left me numb. I was pretty indifferent to what was going on through out. Perhaps catching it as one of the first showings in Scotland, at 1am on Thursday 19th of May as it opened, wasn’t necessarily the best idea. But certainly from the first viewing, there was some nice touches, it is interesting to see it tie into A New Hope at least, though I feel they took that too far, and other than that The Revenge Of The Sith is distinctly under whelming.